Thursday, December 6, 2007

A Holiday Hack

What to do when you need to make cookies for class and you're too busy to even think about pulling out the jar of flour? Dress up an already-awesome cookie.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Jo-Jos are a holiday-only treat, and I can't stop eating them. They taste like Girl Scout Thin Mints, but they look like Oreos, and they have the perfect blend of chocolate and peppermint.

I didn't, however, just want to bring a box of them to class. I wanted it to look as if I at least gave a thought to what I was bringing.

So out came the semi-sweet chocolate and the candy canes. Each cookie got a little chocolate bath before a receiving a sprinkling of crushed red and white jewels. This couldn't have been easier (well, I could have done without burning my first batch of chocolate, but it was late, what do you want from me?) and they couldn't look prettier. Not too pretty to eat, though, believe me.

Update 12/7/07 - During class, my teacher picked one of these up and started to gesture with it as he spoke. He took a bite and then stopped talking. "I'm sorry," he said, looking at the cookie, "but I'm distracted by all this peppermint." Mine were the only treats to be finished off before the end of the night.

8 comments:

I just bought some today for a little treat. I'm cooking for a bunch of people at a retreat this weekend and thought they'd get a kick out of the whimsical cookies. Maybe I might just have to use your inspiration and dress them up. Hmmm....

Your story reminded me of "true" experience of mine when I worked for the chocolate division of RJR Nabisco. LONG story short, I had the brilliant idea of enrobbing "our" #1 cookie in "real" white chocolate and finishing it off with red and green stripes. I put them in tins, added an adorable Christmas Style Stuffed Teddie Bear on top and gave them as gifts. One of the recipients (annonymous) mentioned this "concept" to someone at "Corporate- New Jersey", and next year they rolled out "White Chocolate Covered Oreos". I "DIDN'T" get the credit, since they claimed it was "already" in product development. Needless to say, I WAS NOT too happy. But that's "how the cookie crumbles".